Geraghty denies Dalgleish another hat-trick
Mark Geraghty denied Robbie Dalgleish a second hat-trick of Scottish Mini Cooper Cup wins after a closely fought third race around the reverse configuration of Knockhill.
Reigning champion Dalgleish headed into the weekend on the back of three race wins at the opening meeting, and duly doubled up with victory in the initial races to make it five from five, despite losing the start in the second outing.
“It’s getting harder and harder,” was Dalgleish’s post-race assessment.
And he wasn’t wrong, as he could only manage fourth in the final race.
Geraghty’s win was superb. Starting fourth, he was immediately up to second after the hairpin, and was soon in first place as Michael Weddell and
Ian Bonthorne diced for position.
Weddell took up a valiant pursuit and was glued to the back bumper of Geraghty’s Cooper for several laps. He harassed Geraghty right until the chequered flag, finishing ahead of a pursuing train of Vic Covey Jr, Dalgleish and Ian Munro, with the quintet split by a mere 0.82 seconds.
An increased grid of 14 cars yielded some great racing in the Scottish C1 Cup, with Jack Davidson grabbing both race victories to rocket up the championship standings. Davidson, who also won both Scottish Fiesta contests, was in impeccable form as he became the third different winner in four races. The racing was enthralling throughout, with a four-way photo-finish in race two typifying the action in the new-for-2019 series. Colin Main edged Steven Morrison to second by only 0.31s, while Ryan Smith’s advantage over Reis Robertson in fourth was just 0.008s.
Glenn Alcock’s weekend unravelled when he rolled his C1 at Clark’s at the end of the opening race. After likening the corner in reverse to “falling off the face of the Earth”, Alcock took too much of the inside sausage kerb and as a result contested race two with no windows.
John Paterson emerged victorious in the Legends final in a weekend that he and team-mate Duncan Vincent dominated. Vincent took the opening heat, surviving a hit from Stewart Black that was so strong that Vincent had to “readjust my helmet”. Black had bumped Vincent while drafting, spearing himself into the tyre wall and out of the rest of the weekend’s action.
Paterson won heat two after a scintillating scrap with Steven Mcgill,
decided in Paterson’s favour after Mcgill missed a gear on the run to Clark’s. Paterson then punched in a mouthwatering opening lap in the final as he rose from 12th to third and went on to win. Vincent made similar progress to take second and end the day with three podium finishes.
Alastair Baptie and Raymond Boyd took a win apiece in the Scottish Classics, with a brilliant manoeuvre through traffic by Baptie fooling Boyd in race one.
Boyd (Porsche 911) defended strongly in the second race, before Baptie missed his braking and slid his MGB sideways into the gravel on entry to the hairpin, eventually recovering to sixth.
Jordan Gronkowski protected his
100% start to 2019 with both Formula Ford victories, while Logan Hannah shone to take two podiums and a brief race lead in the second encounter.